How is it that Jesus of Nazareth is the only way to eternal life?
Clifton H. Payne, Jr
It can seem like a brash, self-righteous dogma when Christians affirm that “Jesus is the only way” and that “there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”[1] Are there not many paths to God? There are many religions in the world. How can it be true that Christianity alone reveals the only true way to God and eternal life?
The New Testament makes a very bold claim:
For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. For God sent not his
Son into the world to condemn the world,
But that the world through him might be
saved.[2]
What makes this claim of scripture any more believable than the scriptures of Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Scientology or any of the other myriad of writings claiming wisdom and knowledge of the truth? The Bible (as in what is called the Old Testament and the New Testament) is comprised of 66 books written by 36 authors covering a period of over 1300 years.[3] The scriptures contain historically verifiable prophecies of future events and cross-referenced concepts that interlink between authors who lived hundreds of years apart. There is no other body of religious material that does this and thereby gives greater evidence of divine inspiration than any other body of religious writings.
The Bible is written mostly in the form of stories. This is because it is easier for most people to understand stories as opposed to a theological thesis. The Bible tells a unique story that has explanatory power for the history of our world. In the beginning, the most high God created the heavens, and the beings who live in the heavens; and he created the earth, and the creatures that live in the earth. Lastly, God created mankind. With us, however, God did something unique; he created us in His image. This resulted in a problem. The Bible informs us that we have an enemy. Scripture teaches us that there was a being who lived in the heavenly realms who didn’t like the fact that something created after him and something created materially (which he considered beneath him) was none the less created in the image of God, which meant that he had to bow to it. He didn’t like that. He couldn’t curse what God had created but, being deceptively wicked, he deceived us into disobeying God and thereby cursing ourselves. God had said to mankind that if we disobeyed Him, we would be cut off from Him and would thereby die. Paul would later write, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”[4] What is the law of sin and death? If you sin you will die. This being, whom we call Satan (adversary), thought that if he deceived us and caused us to disobey God the result would be the end of us and his problem. But God, who knows everything that is or is possible, had a plan from before time began to redeem us.
As a modern metaphor, a mobile cell phone will operate ceaselessly as long as it is connected to a charging port. However, once it is disconnected from its power source it begins to die. In a couple of days, it is of no use except to be a paper weight. Likewise, when we were disconnected from the source of life we began to die. Unless we are somehow reconnected to the source of eternal life, we will eventually experience eternal death.
The result of man’s disobedience was not depravity. Depravity came later after we were removed from the ultimate source of goodness and love. The initial result of the fall of man was death. The key element in the redemption of man is overcoming death. But how can death be overcome?
In the Biblical story of the Akedah (the binding of Isaac), the Bible tells the story of how a ram was offered as a substitute for the offering of Isaac.[5] The Biblical principle is that one thing can be substituted for another. This is the principle of how Jesus can be a substitute for all humanity.
For us to be redeemed from death someone had to die for us and then come back to life to reconnect us with the source of eternal life. This is not humanly possible. No other religion proposes anything like this. No other religion offers any answer to overcoming death. While some religions espouse endless reincarnations until one hopefully ascends to a spiritual non-physical plane of existence or melds into a non-conscious union with the universe, only the Bible speaks of a resurrection of the body to an eternal physical existence with the one and only eternal God.[6]
How could there be the overcoming of death? It only works if God, who is the source of all life, himself becomes a man. God is the source of life and thereby cannot die. In the Bible there are accounts where God appears as a man and one incident where He even eats a meal with Abraham.[7] If God can just appear as a man, why would He need to be born as a baby just like you and me? He is born like any normal man so that He can die. He experiences life just like you and me and He dies just like you and me. The only difference is that He lived a life without sin. He is the only totally righteous man to ever live and He gave His life as a substitute for ours. The Bible says, “There is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.”[8] Because the law of sin and death holds that if you sin you die, the one to take our place had to be sinless (otherwise he too would be under the law of sin and death). Since no one is sinless, the only way it could work is for God Himself to become a man and live a sinless life and then take the penalty of death upon himself for us. He takes the penalty of our disobedience and dies in our place. The mystery of our salvation is that this God (who became a man) dies and, because He is the source of life, comes back to life again. Now all who call upon Him shall inherit eternal life.[9]
God became a man, like one of us, in order that we may become the children of God.[10] He suffered a horrible death to redeem us from a horrible eternal death. It doesn’t work any other way. There is not a second option. There isn’t a path to eternal life except through the source of life Himself. Please understand and accept the gift offered to you. It is free but you have to freely receive it because you couldn’t be made in the image of God if you didn’t have some form of free will. Even some of the beings who live in the spiritual realms have rebelled against God.[11] God offers you peace, love and eternal life. Please accept Him.
[1] Acts 4:12 KJV
[2] John 3:16-17 KJV
[3] 36 is the conservative number, some believe the number to be 40 authors. Depending upon the dating of the earliest scriptures the time span could be over 1500 years.
[4] Romans 8:2 NKJV
[5] Gen. 22: 1-14
[6] 1 Cor. 15: 51-53; 1 Peter 1:3-5
[7] Gen. 18: 1-33
[8] Eccl. 7:20, see also Rom.3:10, 23.
[9] Rom. 10:9-13; 1John. 2:25
[10] 1John. 3:2-3
[11] 2 Peter. 2:4, 9
